One tip that struck me was this: “Post in Snapchat style.” The author says this:

Snapchat is a community that has developed its own style and language. Keep it short, fun, designed in the snapchat style (stickers, filters, text and drawings over images … you’ll start to see the trends) and interactive.

That makes a lot of sense, of course. You wouldn’t want to act like a grown-up on Snapchat – that’s just be weird!

But this made me think – is there a “posting style” to the other social media channels we use, like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc.? And do we need to adapt our content to those posting styles?

I think so. For example, videos on YouTube work best when you immediately jump into the content – no introductions needed. Twitter is obviously short and sweet.

This could (eventually) also mean that you create a unique posting style for your content, and stick to it. For example, you might develop a certain “style” of photos on Instagram (that’s a best practice, by the way), and try to share photos and videos using that same style structure.

Annual community novels – we write the intros, the outline, and some of the chapters.

bi-monthly print newspaper, mailed to 47,000 households

catalog records!

tipsheets

videos

content for classes, events, and seminars

internal Intranet posts

emails. Those count, right?

RFPs, resolutions, executive briefs

etc.

I think we make a bit of content, don’t you?

The speaker was an academic librarian. I’m just guessing here, but … LibGuides (used by many academic libraries) are content. Presentations, bibliographic instruction, handouts … content. Special collections archives and digitization? Content. All the words describing all the services and stuff? Content.

Heck – the speaker’s presentation … was content!

Moral of the story: don’t ever let a librarian say we aren’t content creators. Because we totally are.

He’s also prettybigintosocialmedia. He tends to jump on the newest social media trend, and turn it into a lesson on how to do social media right.

I’ve been thinking about his “social media experience” in the last year or so. Here’s what I see him do with a new trend: he’ll jump on it (Snapchat and Instagram Stories are big for him lately). Then he’ll announce he’s there on his other social media channels, a ton of people will immediately follow him … and he starts getting a lot of engagement on the new social media channel.

And, I’d guess, he gets business done there, too.

Nothing wrong with that! But he sometimes translates his unique experience into a “you should do this too” scenario. For example, in a Huffington Post article, he said: “And the one simple takeaway is this: if you’re running a business in 2016, you need to be thinking about Snapchat as a channel to grow your customer base. Period.”

I’ll disagree with that quote. I think his experience using Snapchat (or any other new social media tool) is a unique one that has more similarities to what a celebrity experiences than what a business or organization might experience.

What’s the difference? Gary has a large, loyal “tribe” that will readily follow him to the new social media channel. They love his content, they like watching what he does next, so they follow. Gary gets instant followers/feedback/engagement, and then thinks that “this new social media tool is HOT.” So he ends up sharing quotes like the one above.

OK – not completely fair, I know. I’ve never met Gary, but I’d guess he would add a “your mileage may vary” to that quote. For example, should Hospice be on Snapchat? Maybe not.

So – just a reminder. Definitely read what people like Gary think. Read what I think. But then do two other things:

Try out the new tool – get familiar with it on a personal level.

After you’re familiar with the new tool, see if it fits within your organization’s strategic plans or short-term goals.

Sometimes, yes – it is definitely what you need to be doing. And sometimes, it’s a great idea … but not where you need to focus at the moment.

Over the weekend, I made this video – it’s a short video of me teaching my daughter to parallel park (fyi – she did great!).

I decided to upload it to Facebook and to YouTube, and noticed a couple of differences:

Facebook:

the video took MUCH longer to upload. I think that under 2 minute video took 1-2 hours to upload. I went to bed, then finished it the next morning.

Facebook has a built-in audience (people who friended me). So it was pretty quickly watched, liked, and commented on (388 views so far). And it’s Facbook, so comments were from librarians, college friends, my parents, and some of my daughter’s friends.

Youtube can have a built-in audience, but not so much on my Youtube channel. As of today, the video has been viewed 22 times. Unless you are Casey Neistat or some other popular Youtuber (or have a cool, focused niche channel), you really need to share your videos elsewhere to get them watched.

And a reminder – Facebook’s algorithm favors native video, rather than YouTube videos. So if you are making videos for your library or organization, upload the video to BOTH places. Use the YouTube video on your website or blog, and post it to places like Twitter or LinkedIn. Use the Facebook version for Facebook.

Watch this short video – it’s Gary Vaynerchuk talking about how a restaurant might use Snapchat.

And it’s actually a good primer in how to use ANY new social media platform in a business setting (hint, hint – in libraries, too).

Some of Gary’s highlights in the video include:

Have to have good content and a way to distribute that content.

New social media tools, like Snapchat, can be easier to break into – because there’s not as many people there. Facebook is harder, because there’s a lot more noise to break through.

Getting noticed – create content that’s good and interesting and funny. Gary suggests using charismatic or funny staff – he said “make a chef popular and viral on Snapchat.”

Tell people you’re there – put your Snapchat info on the menu, on the front door, in everyone’s email signature, etc.

Translating all that to a library setting is pretty easy:

Start with good, consistent content.

Use the social media channels your customers/patrons/students use. That probably means Facebook. That might also mean Snapchat, or Twitter, or Instagram. Or the newest thing that appears out of nowhere next month. So you have to keep listening and learning about those new tools!

Get your better writers and photographers making content. If you have funny or charismatic staff, put them in front of the camera. And for libraries, simply be helpful. Tips and tricks are always useful to customers.

Tell people you’re there. Love the email signature idea. Use your public entrances, your e-newsletter, bookmarks, the website, etc to share your social media channels with customers. At the beginning of every class or event, remind people to friend your library on Facebook/Twitter/etc.